It is after Christmas now but I didn't have time to watch this until Christmas Day itself. As an enthusiast of Madelaine Petsch, the preeminent star of the CW's "Riverdale", I had this movie circled as soon as I heard about it. Petsch stars as Georgia, an ambitious and industrious hotel manager who finds herself at the center of a love triangle, torn between the lovelorn hotel chef and a wealthy, smooth-talking foreign prince. You will never be able to guess who eventually wins her heart.
Some hints after the jump?
The Christmas themed movie industry has become big business in recent years with the memefication of the Hallmark extended universe. Indeed the Motion Picture Corporation of America which produced this seems to now exclusively focus on Christmas and holiday movies. Hotel for the Holidays was picked up by Amazon as an exclusive for their streaming platform as they endeavor to stake a share of the spoils.
Jim Belushi's daughter stars as Georgia's inconsistently characterized best friend/colleague and everyone else is Canadian and the film was shot in Canada because it's just cheaper that way, as Petsch knows well from having worked on Riverdale. This film has a problem, well it has several, but one big one is that there are way too many characters who just don't matter at all. Literally every single character in the movie is either paired off or set-up by the film and nearly all of them are just completely unnecessary, even distracting.
One character they try to introduce but who never quite makes their presence felt is the Hotel itself. We keep being told it's some kind of unique place, there's magic in the air or more specifically Georgia repeatedly says there is no magic despite no one having claimed there was - and no one explains what makes the hotel special or why two celebrities end up there right before Christmas. I know it's a trope that Hallmark style holiday movies are full of absurdities and inconsistencies... but they don't have to be. It also would have helped if Georgia and Chef had any reason whatsoever to be drawn together beyond the script saying so. She has not even shared her dream with him, how close can they really be? That he'd know and understand her motivations could have been a hook to spark the chemistry. Despite Petsch being her usual delightful self, I can not in good conscience recommend this as any kind of priority Christmas viewing.
As a bonus, we should score this movie against the Christmas movie trope checklist developed by the esteemed Christmas movie experts Mary Katherine Ham & Kristen Soltis Anderson:
- ❌A TV star of a bygone era - Neil Crone and Jayne Eastwood who play the older couple Milton and Flo had stints here and there on Canadian TV but does that really count? It's not exactly Full House or The OC.
- ✅A workaholic - It's not really a plot point in the way it usually is but Georgia is all business all the damn time.
- ❌Mistletoe, possibly magical Georgia believes in neither magic nor mistletoe, usually a staple of lavish holiday decorations.
- ❌Ice skating or snowball fight - None, they visit Rockefeller Center, a true New York Christmas trope, but never make it onto the ice.
- ❌Evil business empire threatening small business - It would have made a better story if a big chain was trying to poach Georgia away but alas, not the case.
- ❌A fake significant other - No.
- ✅A Battle of the Beaus - Chef and Prince Raymond form an instinctive rivalry and square off though never really acknowledging what or who is being competed over.
- ✅Someone named Holly/Ivy/Rudolph/Chris/Nick/etc - The dog of one of the guests is called Dickens which is helpfully commented on as no one would have got it otherwise.
- ❌Surprisingly dark back story - No, but why does no one other than Flo talk about going home for Christmas? Don't any of these people have families? Georgia references her parents but there's not even a hint of visiting them or vice versa while the hotel owner Madam Fontaine claims to view her as a daughter... are Georgia's parents dead!?
- ✅Over zealous house decorating - A hotel in this case but Georgia's best friend and underling Kiki is hard at work throughout the film attempting to acquire all components of the 12 Days of Christmas carol.
- ❌Lost Christmas Spirit - No.
- ❌Wise Santa - No, just a dirty one.
- ❌Ugly Christmas Sweater - Don't recall any.
- ✅Photoshop / Bad green screen - The background of Madame Fontaine's "yacht"
- ❌Thwarted artistic dream - No.
- ❌Transparent vehicle for starlet's single release - No, a missed opportunity as the pop star character sings a song at the end - it's very obvious that the vocals are dubbed over not least because it's meant to be an acoustic performance yet there's autotune involved.
- ❌Shopping or gift wrapping montage - No.
- ✅Third act complication - More of a speedbump as all the staff is initially upset that Georgia might leave the hotel but they get over it very quickly, recognizing what a step-up it would be for her.
- ❌Folger's or Balsam Hill product placement - This is more Hallmark specific but usually the advertising has to be as obvious as it was in I, Robot for me to get it.
- ❌A Christmas deadline - No.
- ❌A down on its luck non profit - No.
- ✅Raising money - Yes, Georgia's driving motivation.
- ❌Precocious kid - No kids whatsoever, I would have said too much hassle for a low budget production but they did have a dog.
- ❌Christmas pageant, with kids - No.
- ❌A makeover scene - No - the closest we get is Pandora's make-under which consists of her snatching off ehr own wig.
- ❌Parent love story - Not quite, although the two boomers do get together.
- ❌Wacky townie - Not really.
- ✅Royalty - Why, yes, indeed there was.
No comments:
Post a Comment